“Selling in blocks to investors? For many people, it still sounds like a distant possibility—something that might work abroad, but “not here.”
I heard that kind of reaction often over the past year, and honestly, I understand where it comes from. The real estate sector is naturally cautious. It involves large sums of money, responsibility, and risks that cannot be taken lightly. Skepticism, limited belief in innovation, and sometimes a touch of conservatism are part of the landscape,” says Karel.
“In 2024, I felt something shifting. Not just in yields or regulations, but deeper: a cultural shift from a buying culture to a rental culture in Belgium. The famous “brick in the stomach” has simply become expensive today—expensive to build, expensive to buy. For many, it has become a brick on the stomach. Selling units individually dropped drastically, the last units aren’t selling, and prices can’t fall because construction costs have risen.
I still remember the start of Project Resi at Avenue. In conversations with developers and investors, we often heard that Belgium wasn’t yet ready for block sales—not because people were opposed, but because it was uncharted territory and not yet profitable. But as is often the case in real estate: timing is everything. And that timing fell into place in 2025.
Recently, we sold a building of 19 apartments for Matexi to a private investment company of Flemish entrepreneurs. What strikes me most in deals like this is not the number, but the bigger story behind it. Today’s buyers are not only the core funds—they are family offices, hedge funds, and private equity players. Residential real estate today—and real estate in general—is no longer just the classic bond substitute. Real estate as a “coupon in the portfolio” used to be the benchmark. We see a new generation of investors who approach residential real estate not as a static coupon, but as a dynamic investment requiring vision: active management, rolling up their sleeves, innovation, and a long-term approach.
It is often entrepreneurs—the people used to looking ahead and acting in uncertainty—who dare to take the lead in this movement.
And in this movement, the role of the broker is also essential. Anyone who has experienced a full deal cycle knows how fragile transactions are. A deal rarely moves in a straight line. Sometimes it “dies” ten times before it finally happens.
In those moments—the difficult conversations, the silence between negotiation rounds, the unexpected twist, the spreadsheet that suddenly changes—a broker acts as both intermediary and stabilizer. Someone who brings parties back to the table, explores new angles, balances emotions, and simultaneously protects the business essentials.
The culture of creative thinking, speed, personal contact, and genuine enthusiasm—that is what makes Avenue so strong. When you combine that with in-depth expertise in large transactions, something emerges that, in my opinion, did not yet exist in Belgium: a way of working that is both human and professional, innovative but not reckless.
P.S. Block sales are not a trend. They are a response to a market in transition—a market that demands new perspectives and collaboration between families, entrepreneurs, investors, owners, and developers.
I believe that those who dare to move today will help shape the direction of tomorrow.
And that, precisely that, is where we at Avenue want to stand:
not as proof of what can be done,
but as a partner in what becomes possible. We are in it for the long run.”
– Karel